


Shadows of Doubt

by DarkAcey



Series: Bonus content from Not My Namesake [8]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Backstory, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Son Relationship, Fear, Gen, Guilt, Hopeful Ending, Lurelin Village, Post-Breath of the Wild, Post-Calamity Ganon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24975364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAcey/pseuds/DarkAcey
Summary: Ganondorf's father, Sebastes, thought he had lost his entire family eighteen years ago. The Yiga clan killed his wife, kidnapped his daughter, and stole his newborn child. He thought he had lost two daughters. But then he got a letter.His children were still alive, and hissonattacked Hyrule Castle.This ficlet came from my work onNot My Namesake, a long fic about a new generation of heroes 100 years after the fall of Calamity Ganon. I recommend you start with the main story, but this work can be read on its own too.
Series: Bonus content from Not My Namesake [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1806355
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	Shadows of Doubt

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not My Namesake](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827259) by [DarkAcey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAcey/pseuds/DarkAcey). 



> So, some context - I technically wrote this scene (chapter?) for Not My Namesake's sequel, which has a strong focus on buried guilt/fears and how unresolved trauma always finds a way to bite us again. (NMN focuses more on inter-generational conflicts and how other people's expectations cause problems, so the series is kind of going from external issues to internal ones).
> 
> Sebastes and Coralia are important characters for book 2, so I wrote this scene to try to get to know them better.

Coralia was embroidering the end of a blue pillowcase with little white waves when she heard heavy footsteps rush up the steps to her hut. She tucked her needle into the fabric and set it down on the rattan table beside her wicker rocking chair. When Coralia faced the open doorway, as she had tied off its curtain to welcome the Faron sea breeze, she saw her neighbor Sebastes. The tall, Lurelin fisherman gripped the top of the doorframe, as if it was the only thing holding him upright. His other hand held an opened letter. He stared at his elderly neighbor for a moment, words failing him, before his gaze fell to the colorful rugs on Coralia’s floor.

“I have a son,” Sebastes breathed. His head fell against his forearm. He tightened his grip on the doorframe. “He attacked the castle.”

“Well, don’t just stand there with your mouth open like a flytrap.” Coralia picked herself up from her rocking chair with a tight sigh. Her hip protested the movement, but she ignored it as she shuffled across her hut to her little kitchenette.

Sebastes was taken aback by her lack of shock, but found himself smiling dryly at the fact. The matriarch of Lurelin Village was a difficult woman to throw off kilter. She had been just as no-nonsense when he had fallen in love with Inume, the heir apparent to the Gerudo nation’s throne, and when Inume had been murdered during the birth of their second child. Both of his children had been taken that day, and he thought he lost them forever. But then he got a letter from Chief Saburi, his late wife’s mother, telling him that there was a chance he and his children could be reunited after all.

Coralia poured two glasses of orange fruit punch and brought one to Sebastes. After he took his glass, she walked back to her rocking chair. It creaked as she eased herself back into her seat. “Now,” Coralia said while she rocked back with her gnarled hands on her arm rests, “tell me about what this letter says. Does your son have a name?”

“Uh, yeah.” Sebastes went to sit at a wicker chair set perpendicularly to Coralia’s rocker. The patterned cushion on the seat was flattened by decades of visitors. He rested his wrists on his knees and held his glass between them. He glanced back at the letter, but he had reread it enough times this morning to have memorized it. “He was named Ganondorf. It was the name Calamity Ganon had once, when it was a Gerudo king apparently. The people who took him thought he, my _son_ would be its reincarnation.”

Sebastes stumbled over the very idea that his second child was a boy. He had thought he lost two daughters for eighteen years, so it was a struggle to conceptualize his second child as male. It was even harder to accept that his children were adults. His little girl, Nabooru, had been five years old when they were separated. Now she was a twenty-three-year-old, grown woman.

While Sebastes told Coralia everything else Saburi shared with him from Impa, the castle’s spymaster, Coralia sipped her punch. It all felt a little surreal to Sebastes, describing the story. When he married royalty, he expected to be privy to all sorts of national secrets and important matters, but it was never supposed to be his responsibility to take part in politics. After Inume died and he moved back to Lurelin, he only barely kept in contact with Saburi. Now his son was embroiled with terrorists, Hyrule’s royal family, and ancient powers beyond his comprehension.

“So, do you think your boy will get out of the Yiga’s clutches again?” Coralia asked.

“I have no idea.” Sebastes sunk down in his chair and tipped back his head. His thick braids were tied together behind his neck, making it uncomfortable to lean back, but he didn’t bother to unbind them. “Saburi doesn’t know how her warriors will do it, but now that we know they’re still alive, she isn’t going to give up on them again.”

Coralia hummed thoughtfully and set aside her punch. She put her hands back onto her armrests. “Your boy seems like a stubborn one. If Saburi can’t rescue your kids, I think they will get themselves out.”

“But how?” Sebastes asked. “We only know about Ganondorf because the castle caught him. We don’t even know if he’s…” He trailed off, unwilling to voice the thought, that his kid was secretly just as evil as the people who kidnapped him. Unlike Nabooru, who Sebastes knew was a good girl, his second child never got to know his real parents. Ganondorf didn’t get to have his and Inume’s love growing up. He didn’t even get a real name from them.

Coralia heard what Sebastes left unsaid. She studied her neighbor for a minute. When Sebastes returned to Lurelin sixteen years ago, he had been a mess. He only returned because he had given up all hope of his children being returned. He might have stayed in Gerudo Town longer, but without Inume and his children, he was just an extraneous man in the palace. He had been made to feel small and useless among the Gerudo, intentionally or not, and he continued feeling that way when he was back among his own kin. It took Coralia and the rest of their village many years to bring back even a little of Sebastes’ old confidence.

“Your boy is strong,” Coralia said eventually. “And being yours and Inume’s, I have no doubt that he is a good kid too.”

“But he was raised by terrible, horrible people! They named him Ganondorf _because_ they wanted him to become an evil man.” Sebastes put his head in his hand and gripped his temples. “By the Goddess, if he doesn’t hate us because of their ideas, he has to still feel something about the fact that we let him and Nabooru rot in that damn fortress. We abandoned them.”

“Seb, don’t do this to yourself again. You and Saburi’s warriors did absolutely everything you could have done to rescue them. Dozens of people died trying.”

“Yeah, but we never tried again after those first two years.” Sebastes hit the back of his fingers against Saburi’s letter. “This says Ganondorf spent his whole life there. Nabooru had been with him this whole time too, probably praying every day that we would come back for her.” His hand crushed the letter. “I let my baby down and gave up on her. I gave up on _both_ of them. They have to hate me for that. I hate _myself_ for it.”

“Your children could never hate you, Seb.” Coralia reached over and patted his knee. “You have to forgive yourself and have a little faith in them.”

Sebastes shook his head, leaving it in his hand. “I don’t know how.”

“First you got to stop wallowing around like this,” Coralia said. “You’ve gotten it off your chest, so now you’ve got to focus on what you can do. We can’t do anything about what happens at the castle or in the desert, but you still have fish to catch and probably other errands to do. Maybe you can see about setting up a guest suite for your kids, too.”

The idea brought a reluctant laugh out of Sebastes. “I’d have to build an entire extension on my house.”

“Exactly! It’ll keep you busy, and you’re handy enough for it. We can ask Whelk and Eddy to help you with it too.”

Sebastes smiled wryly. “You mean Eddy would help. Whelk might pass us tools.” The two brothers were some of his closest friends, aside from Coralia, and Whelk was certainly better with books than heavy labor.

“My point still stands.” Coralia smiled. “Go make yourself useful – doesn’t matter how. It’ll make you feel better.”

Sebastes took a deep breath and let out a shaky sigh. “Okay.” He finished off the rest of his fruit punch and stood up to leave. “Thank you, Coralia.”

“Anytime, dear.”


End file.
